The aim of the Bologna Process is to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010 and to promote the European system of higher education worldwide. There are a number of key areas the process is focusing on to achieve its aim.

• Removing obstacles to student and academic mobility – within Europe and to students from outside - is seen as essential to the establishment of the EHEA. Greater mobility brings increased career opportunities for students and teachers in the European employment market.
• Ministers have called for European higher education sectors to adopt a system based on two cycles, at Bachelor and Master’s level, which is already common to the UK. Focus has also extended beyond these two cycles so that doctoral level qualifications are now considered as the third cycle in the Bologna Process. This will enable the promotion of closer links between the European Higher Education Area and the European Research Area (ERA).
• The development of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees will simplify comparison between qualifications across Europe. The flexibility and transparency provided will enable students and teachers to have their qualifications recognised more widely, facilitating freedom of movement around a more transparent EHEA. This would be aided by the establishment of a system of credits in the form of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and the adoption of the Diploma Supplement by all countries involved.
• Improving the quality and ensuring high standards of higher education in Europe are key to making the EHEA attractive on the international stage. Cooperating in quality assurance at European level to develop an agreed set of guidelines and exploring ways to ensure an adequate peer review system for QA bodies will assist in achieving common high standards across Europe, and will ease the comparability of qualifications.
• Higher education institutions and students themselves have an important role to play in the Bologna Process and Ministers have called upon them to become involved in forming a diverse and adaptable European Higher Education Area.
• The Bologna Process demonstrates a commitment to lifelong learning in Europe, which is essential to help meet the challenges of increased competition in the global workplace, and the use of new technologies.
• Institutions have been urged to develop courses and curricula with significant European content, to increase the European dimension of higher education. This also entails the promotion of partnership activities and curriculum development between institutions in Europe, and the establishment of joint degrees.

Ministers have formalised these objectives into 10 action lines over the course of the summits in Bologna, Prague and Berlin.